


The Quests of a White Mage

by Ilphros



Category: Final Fantasy, Final Fantasy XIV
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, No Beta, No Spoilers, Tags Are Hard, White Mage Warrior of Light (Final Fantasy XIV), White Magic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-14
Updated: 2019-08-13
Packaged: 2020-08-23 06:02:50
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 2,630
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20237941
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ilphros/pseuds/Ilphros
Summary: This is entirely just a handful of low-detail 'scripts' for alternate White Mage quests, from level 35 to level 50 (once per 5 levels) for Final Fantasy XIV.This is a bit AU; imagine that the problem in the Level 30 quest was also solved in the Level 30 quest instead of being stretched out for many, many quests.I wrote this because I have a friend who mains White Mage and is often disappointed that the best he can hope for in his Job Quests are sub-par Conjury or maybe fighting Voidsent.





	1. Chapter One - Level 35

“To learn White Magic, I must first teach you how to not use it. You have been somewhat thrust into your new role, so I will need to teach you the history in pieces, between the more practical lessons of the battlefield. Come with me to the ruins of ancient Amdapor, and we will speak of why learning control and respect is so important. Do not worry; what you have already been doing is fine. But White Magic can be used to do great harm as well as great good, and I would see you continue to walk a better path.”

\---

“Look around; see the life that blooms and buzzes and growls all throughout the surface of these ruins now! The many years since Amdapor’s fall has allowed nature to retake much of this city. It was not always so; many centuries ago, no life grew here that was not twisted, doomed to wither unnaturally… or to grow unnaturally, choking out everything around it until its very life force collapsed, like a candle-wick that was tossed into a furnace, rather than lit normally. If you look there, you can still see a pocket of decay – and at the edges, you can see the mushrooms and fungi that the forest uses even now to reclaim it, slowly healing ancient wounds.”

“This was the legacy of Amdapor, because they took from the land and from nature without repaying their debts. What Conjury borrows and gently guides, White Magic commands and wields with force. This makes White Mages powerful agents of life, but such power can be misused.”

“You need not wear such gloom upon your face – you learned Conjury before you learned White Magic, so you will not err by gross ignorance, and I truly believe your character is worthy of our trust, rarely granted as it is, so you will not err by selfish vice! Do not be afraid to reach for your new powers to save a life, only remember the lessons you learned as a Conjurer. Return balance to nature wherever you find imbalance, and you will correct whatever flaws you might introduce. If you remember the lessons of the past, you will not repeat Amdapor’s mistakes. Let us return to Gridania.”

\---

“Welcome back. Now, I will teach you a spell unique to White Magic: the art of regeneration. This spell allows you to create a sort of blessing of life, more concentrated than is normally natural, to seep into your target over time. This allows you to soothe their ills even while your attention is needed elsewhere. Try it in battle, meditate upon the capabilities White Magic offers, and when you are ready we will speak again.”


	2. Chapter Two - Level 40

“Ah, and so you return. I am glad that you were not discouraged by your lesson on the ills of White Magic. Today I will again teach you a part of our history, and a new spell, but today’s history is about Conjury. Every child of Gridania knows of our harvest dances, but the truth is that they are reflections of an older dance, from when Conjury was less refined and required much more physical movements – it took much more effort to call on nature with the old ways, but we still honor them, because the new is built on the old.”

“There won’t be any travel for today’s lesson, only a story. Close your eyes, and listen to the tale of the First Day of Peace…”

“Long ago, the ancestors of the ancestors of the Elezen lived underground, and did not dare set foot in the surface of the forest without great need, for in those days the Elementals slew all they found, for they remembered the sins of Amdapor and Mhach. Yet, some of these people wished to live in the plenty of the woods without fear, to feel the sun and the wind without the risk of death, and wondered how such a thing might be done. They watched the Elementals from afar, seeing how they were in harmony with the trees of the Black Shroud, and slowly realized that the Shroud and the Elementals were as one.”

“’If we can join this harmony,’ they spoke among themselves, ‘Then our lives would be ones of peace and sunlight.’ It took a generation more, for they knew but little of magic and were creating an art from naught but a dream of a better future and their own earnest desires, but in time they had a spell that they felt would show the Elementals their desires to atone for the ancient sins that ended the Fifth Astral Era. This was the Dance of the Sapling, which could reinvigorate a child weakened by certain diseases, enough that they might fight off their infection with the strength of an adult, and live when they would have died.”

“And with their plan and their dance, our ancient forebears watched, and waited, for a chance to show the Elementals the truth of their peaceful overtures. Eventually, it happened – they saw Elementals gathering around a dying sapling. Though the Elementals do not show their emotions as we mortals do, the Elezen knew that the Elementals were mourning their dying kin. They moved out with great stealth and then great speed, calling on the power of the deep earth they knew well to defend them as they danced about the sapling. The Elementals raged and struck terrible blows, but their defenses allowed them to complete the dance, and life began to return to the tree. And then, the dancers fled back to their underground homes.”

“The next time they saw the same events repeat – a young tree dying of disease that they could help, the Elementals gathering to mourn – they came again, and repeated the dance, and the Elementals struck less violently at their defenses. And a third time they repeated this, and when their defenses fell, they left without the power of the earth shielding them – but the Elementals did not strike them down. This was the First Day of Peace, when men walked the surface world of the Black Shroud with the grace of the Elementals, rather than their wrath.”

“… It is a long story, I know! But it teaches us valuable lessons – about the worth of perseverance, of reaching out to others, and how harmony can arise even when discord seems to rule the day. This is a lesson you would eventually have learned as a Conjurer, but as a White Mage you will need to be the best of Conjurers as well as learning your new skills. To that end, let me teach you an extension of the spells you already know.”

“As a Conjurer, you have learned to cast spells that allow you to heal one person, or many. White Magic gives you the more exact control needed to have a third option – the ability to heal a very small group. As the Amdapori did, we simply call it Cure III, and it is more useful than it seems – if you notice that your allies are grouped tightly enough to use this spell, it is the least-tiring way you have to heal them all at once. Try it in battle, meditate upon the capabilities White Magic offers, and when you are ready we will speak again.”


	3. Chapter Three - Level 45

“Welcome to you, as both a teacher and a friend. I hope you are prepared for a long journey… you have endured your lessons on why White Magic is dangerous, and how Conjury repaired a rift that White Magic created, between our people and the Elementals… But you have not lost hope, nor have you tried to reject the power of White Magic entirely. This is good, and it means you are ready for a lesson on how to use White Magic to do good in the world – and not just to be better at healing warriors in battle!”

“Travel to Mor Dhona, at the edge of the crystallized lands created by Bahamut’s passing, and wait for me. I will not be long – I simply have something that needs to be collected before I set out.”

\---

“Thank you for waiting. I meant no mystery; I merely needed to collect a special seed, one from a tree native to Mor Dhona before the Calamity wiped them out. Here, hold it in your hand. Feel the tiny spark of life inside it… In every seed there is a striving, a yearning to be the tree that it _could_ be. This one is no different.”

“Now, stretch out your senses… feel the wind, the water, and the earth of this land…”

“…You feel it, don’t you? The lack of life. Only a few threads where there should be a beautiful tapestry. This place… The Calamity has twisted it, like much of Mor Dhona, and it can no longer support the life it once did. Conjury cannot save this land, because Conjury can only work with the life that already exists, borrowing from nature to let life aid life. It makes healing difficult here, though not impossible – one needs only reach further, for the sort of uses an adventurer needs! But, if we want to restore nature itself to this land, Conjury is not enough.”

“White Magic is different. White Magic commands when Conjury guides, and White Magic can also _create_ when Conjury only borrows. That is what we are going to do together today. Plant the seed right over there, and then take a position across from me.”

“Good. Now, close your eyes and reach out to the seed and the land again… This land is full of aether, what it lacks is life. It is easier to simply take life for your own ends as the Amdapori did, but White Magic can create new life from raw aether as well. Begin to shape the aether, command it to take the form your heart knows, the life that a tree can use… Yes, like that…”

“Now, gently begin to feed a thread of that life into the seed, and another into the soil around it… You do not need to command the seed, it knows what it yearns to be, just give it the life it needs to survive and thrive…”

“And there… hah, hah… You look almost as tired as I do… even the power of White Magic finds the wounds of the Calamity difficult to heal… But if every White Mage plants a tree, then in the centuries to come, this place will eventually be full of life again. Return to Gridania, and I will teach you a new spell there from the other branch of White Magic. What? Do not look at me like that! I did not intend to make a tree pun! Ah, you were so much more respectful when you were just starting out…”

\---

“Welcome back to Gridania. It is easy to tell the difference now, is it not? Here in the Black Shroud, life is everywhere… But, that is not the origin of the spell I want to teach you today. White Magic has great power over life, as you have just learned, but it also has power over light. This other type of magic is what gives rise to the spell Holy, a powerful weapon you can use to banish and disorient your enemies with shining radiance. I teach you this now because I fear you will need it soon… Try it in battle, meditate upon the capabilities that White Magic offers, and return when you are ready – which I hope is soon, because there are whispers on the wind… we may soon need your strength, my student.”


	4. Chapter Four - Level 50

“My student! I am glad you are here – there is little time. It is as we feared and worse… You recall, I hope, how powerful voidsent can taint the natural forces of the world? A subtle one has infected one of the Guardian Trees of the forest, and somehow impersonates its Elemental so that the other Elementals cannot find and cleanse it. That means it is up to us to guard the forest and banish this voidsent. We have soldiers to aid us, but we will need your help to keep them alive. Ready yourself as quickly as you can, and travel to the glade just outside Urth’s Gift.”

\---

“My student! It is good to see you here in time. Here, let us say you are responsible for these two – Padilloix and Carrilaut. I will handle healing the other two.”

“Hail, master White Mage; I am Padilloix, and I will ensure that the voidsent and any foul minions do not harm you or Carrilaut while you work.”

“Yeah, hail! I’m Carrilaut, and I’ll tear apart these invaders of the forest – just keep me alive while I do, please!”

“Talk to me when you are ready to begin… once it realizes that we mean to attack, the voidsent will manifest and summon minions. Be ready to heal your guardians and use Esuna to restore them… We must destroy it and all its minions, and then restore the tree it has parasitized.”

The battle is against a large, black ‘Elemental’ named Jexoth the Foul, which starts that battle surrounded by an invulnerable barrier and immediately summons two Summoned Ogres – one for each ‘group’. It periodically pulses small amounts of damage with Twisted Gaze, which does a moderate amount of damage and inflicts a dispel-able Bleed effect. NPCs who drop under 50% health will say, “Ugh! I cannot summon my full strength until my wounds are healed…” and take a Damage Down debuff until healed above 50% health.

Once both ogres die (the NPCs do good damage, and the other White Mage uses Stone to hint to the player that it’s okay for them to do the same) Jexoth summons a large number of Vile Imps, puts a dispel-able Paralysis debuff on everyone (including the player,) and covers most of the fight’s area in green-brown pools that inflict a Healing Down debuff while standing in them. At this point, your teacher will say, “Beware the taint it spreads! It will interfere with your magic!” and then “Get out of the taint so you can restore our allies, and then use Holy to help deal with the Imps when you get the chance!”

Once all the imps die (the NPCs do good damage, again – it’s perfectly possible to succeed without using Holy at all) Jexoth makes a screeching sound and attacks directly, starting by ‘knocking out’ your White Mage teacher, who says, “Ugh! It is up… to you now…” Jexoth is now vulnerable, and when it dies a cutscene starts with your White Mage teacher recovering, but still kneeling.

“Hah… hah… quickly, you must… before Jexoth can take form again… pull on everything! Restore the Guardian Tree, and the Elementals will finish off the voidsent for us!”

The player White Mage uses a casting animation, and the screen whites out for a moment. When it returns, the tainted areas are all gone, the tree is sparkling, and elementals start approaching and destroy Jexoth. Then the cutscene ends, and you can speak with your teacher.

“You’ve done it… I am proud to call you my student. You have learned the final art I can teach you, for now… Let us return to Gridania, and I will explain there.”

\---

“I am sure you are wondering just what the spell you used to heal the tree is called… it is known as Benediction, and once you have learned it properly it allows you to focus immense energies into a single, swift spell. It is too powerful for any mage to cast too often, but there is no stronger art of healing in all Eorzea. Use it wisely, and know that you always have my blessing in your travels."


End file.
